Default Image Place of Worship has been
Demolished.
Image by courtesy of
openclipart.org

Methodist Chapel (Demolished),
High Street,
Upton St Leonards, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Chapel did NOT have a graveyard.

Note: any church within an urban environment may have had its graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853. Any new church built after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all.

Church History

This Place of Worship was founded in 1809, but we understand it was closed after 1966.

The Wesleyan Chapel in Upton St Leonards was situated on the north-east corner of the junction of the High Street with Perry Orchard. The location can best be seen on Old Maps of 1923, where my impression is of a building set back from the road on both sides, and entered from Perry Orchard. The 1923 Map also shows a Sunday School in front of it, not marked on the equivalent Map of the area dated 1902-1903.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/336/4/8/10) for a building named "Wesleyan Chapel" in Upton St Leonards describes a separate building, with free sittings for 100, 30 "other" sittings, and used exclusively as a place of worship. The average congregation for the previous 12 months was 30 in the afternoon and 50 in the evening. The return was completed by James Brown, who described himself as their "Leader", and a "Shoe Maker, Upton St Leonards, Nr. Gloucester".

No notices of registration for marriages, or its cancellation have been found in The London Gazette, and the only records available for research in the Gloucestershire Archives are minutes for the period 1931-1966, suggesting it was open until at least 1966. Since then, however it has been demolished, and the plot it stood on is now (2014) occupied by modern housing.

Denomination

Now or formerly Wesleyan Methodist.

If more than one congregation has worshipped here, or its congregation has united with others, in most cases this will record its original dedication.

Maps

This Chapel was located at OS grid reference SO8627414685. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Methodist Chapel (Demolished), Upton St Leonards shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Upton St Leonards shown on a Google Map.
• Streetmap.co.uk (arrow on map shows the Place of Worship's location) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Bing (Ordnance Survey option) (verified 2018-10-13)
• Bing Maps ('Bird's Eye' View) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Ordnance Survey "getamap" (NB some of the 'Change Map' options may require a subscription) (verified 2018-10-15)
• OpenStreetMap (Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA) (verified 2018-10-15)
• A Vision of Britain Through Time - useful for Boundary Changes (verified 2018-10-15)
• www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays) (verified 2018-10-15)

Resources

I have found many websites of use whilst compiling the information for this database. Here are some which deserve mention as being of special interest for Upton St Leonards, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Notices of Civil Registration of Places of Worship for marriages are published in the London edition of The Gazette. Hint: search for registrations from 1998 by choosing 'Church' notices, and the option 'Registration for solemnising marriage'. (verified 2018-12-11)

The above links were selected and reviewed at the time I prepared the information, but please be aware their content may vary, or disappear entirely. These factors are outside my control.